Highways have no beauty in heat of summer: the road flattens and grass lies thirsty by the way. Nothing to see (the asphalt carpet rolls through nowhere fast), we dream of nothing but our pedestrian destinations. Should someone tell the day that new light might dawn across a languid, surprised hill, it would chuckle. And so the road stays nonchalant,Continue reading “Too Much Light 2: Prepare Your Eyes”
Category Archives: Poetry
Too Much Light 1: Prepare the Way
Delays are bad today; nothing moves. Contained at interchange, a stencil house smiles, as though to make this place feel more like home. Small comfort: we go nowhere fast. The morning yawns through Western traffic haze; the day’s light’s too bright. We squint in glare. Lane changes ache; all is standstill until a way canContinue reading “Too Much Light 1: Prepare the Way”
Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted After Hammock, “Tres Dominé” O God – the empty horn is lifted; the hollow shell is given voice; the broken branch is whittled out and sings. Three persons, my emptiness becomes Your fullness; my earthen jar becomes Your vessel; my bruised reed hums with Your song inContinue reading “Evening Collect: The Horn is Lifted (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Expectation (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Expectation After J.S. Bach, “Mass in B Minor: Et Expecto Resurrectionem” We begin small: a kernel dropping to soil a weak and fickle seed a broken passing moment dust expectantly, expectant… of what breaks forth in trumpet-shower, in polyphonic spring, Continue reading “Expectation (The Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Prayers of Intercession (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Prayers of Intercession After Felix Mendelssohn, “Veni Domine, Op.39” Veni Domine, et noli tardare. Come, Lord, and do not delay. (Traditional prayer) With empty horn and plaintive voice: Veni domine, we cry. Sunk in mire, sunk in self: Et noli tardare. Our earth is cracked, our reservoirs dry: Veni domine,Continue reading “Prayers of Intercession (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
The Lord’s Prayer (Cornucopia of Heaven)
The Lord’s Prayer After Otto Nicolai, “Pater noster, Op. 33” Our Father – the heavens are Your home, earth Your tent, and yet You are a Father. Teach our fickle hearts, our yelling hearts, to still, to stop to look upon Your glory, high and lifted up. Our Father who our FatherContinue reading “The Lord’s Prayer (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Assurance (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Assurance After Giovanni Gabrieli, “Exultavit Cor Meum” From depths, from brokenness, the trumpet sounds, the trumpet sounds the new, it sounds the dawn of low made high. Exalt, my heart! My heart exalts. My eyes will see, my ears will hearContinue reading “Assurance (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Kyrie (Cornucopia of Heaven)
Kyrie After Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, “Missa Papae Marcelli: Kyrie” From earth, from soil, from hearts, from fractures Kyrie Kyrie From death, from fire, from quake, from anguish Kyrie Kyrie From drought that blocks, from self that locks Kyrie eleison From sin, from toil, from pride, from hate Christe Christe FromContinue reading “Kyrie (Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Esurientes implevit bonis (After J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat)
Two women who knew the truth of a God who exalts the humble were Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Both were unlikely mothers, one a virgin, the other barren and ridiculed by her husband’s other wife, Penninah. When Mary heard the news that she was bearing theContinue reading “Esurientes implevit bonis (After J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat)”
Catechism 40
What should we pray? The whole Word of God directs and inspires us in what we should pray, including the prayer Jesus himself taught us. (New City Catechism) What then? The whole story beckons: Creation, fall, flood, a people set apart yet crumbling. Every moment shines what-might-be against what-is, entropy’s melancholy truth, and yet this potentiality ofContinue reading “Catechism 40”
The Consolations of Writing 